Set up a local Postman MCP server

The local server is based on STDIO transport and is hosted locally on an environment of your choice. STDIO is a lightweight solution that’s ideal for integration with editors and tools like Visual Studio Code. Install an MCP-compatible VS Code extension, such as GitHub Copilot, Claude for VS Code, or other AI assistants that support MCP. The local server only supports API key authentication (with a Postman API key or Bearer token).

Use cases

Consider using the local Postman MCP server if:

• You want to power local use cases, such as local API testing.
• You have specific security and network requirements.
• You prefer to build the MCP server from the source code in this repo.
• You’re working with internal APIs.

Supported configurations

The local server supports the following tool configurations:

• Minimal — (Default) Only includes essential tools for basic Postman operations.
• Code — Includes tools for searching public and internal API definitions and generating client code.
• Full — Includes all available Postman API tools (100+ tools).
• Quiet — This option suppresses debug and info logs in stderr, and returns only warn and error. This mode is required for Windsurf users on Windows, as it avoids a stderr pipe buffer deadlock that results in MCP initializing a request to timeout. You can enable this mode along with the Minimal, Code, or Full configuration.

Use the --region flag to specify the Postman API region (us or eu), or set the POSTMAN_API_BASE_URL environment variable directly. By default, the server uses the us option.

Claude Code

To install the MCP server in Claude Code, run the following command in your terminal:

Minimal

$
claude mcp add postman --env POSTMAN_API_KEY=<POSTMAN_API_KEY> -- npx @postman/postman-mcp-server@latest

Code

$
claude mcp add postman --env POSTMAN_API_KEY=<POSTMAN_API_KEY> -- npx @postman/postman-mcp-server@latest --code

Full

$
claude mcp add postman --env POSTMAN_API_KEY=<POSTMAN_API_KEY> -- npx @postman/postman-mcp-server@latest --full

Cursor

Click the button to install the local Postman MCP server in Cursor:

By default, the server uses Full mode. To access Minimal mode, remove the --full flag from the mcp.json configuration file. To access Code mode, replace the --full flag with the --code flag.

Manual installation

To manually integrate your MCP server with Cursor and VS Code, create a .vscode/mcp.json file in your project and add the following JSON block to it:

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{
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    "servers": {
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        "postman-api-mcp": {
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            "type": "stdio",
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            "command": "npx",
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            "args": [
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                "@postman/postman-mcp-server",
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                "--full" // (optional) Use this flag to enable full mode.
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                "--code" // (optional) Use this flag to enable code mode.
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                "--region us" // (optional) Use this flag to specify the Postman API region (us or eu). Defaults to us.
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            ],
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            "env": {
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                "POSTMAN_API_KEY": "${input:postman-api-key}"
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            }
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        }
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    },
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    "inputs": [
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        {
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            "id": "postman-api-key",
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            "type": "promptString",
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            "description": "Enter your Postman API key"
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        }
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    ]
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}

Visual Studio Code

Click the button to install the local Postman MCP server in VS Code:

By default, the server uses Full mode. To access Minimal mode, remove the --full flag from the mcp.json configuration file. To access Code mode, replace the --full flag with the --code flag.

Manual configuration

You can manually integrate your MCP server with VS Code to use it with extensions that support MCP. To do this, create a mcp.json file in your project and add the following JSON block to it:

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{
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    "servers": {
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        "postman": {
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            "type": "stdio",
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            "command": "npx",
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            "args": [
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                "@postman/postman-mcp-server",
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                "--full", // (optional) Use this flag to enable full mode...
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                "--code", // (optional) ...or this flag to enable code mode.
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                "--region us" // (optional) Use this flag to specify the Postman API region (us or eu). Defaults to us.
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            ],
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            "env": {
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                "POSTMAN_API_KEY": "${input:postman-api-key}"
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            }
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        }
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    },
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    "inputs": [
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        {
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            "id": "postman-api-key",
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            "type": "promptString",
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            "description": "Enter your Postman API key"
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        }
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    ]
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}

Claude

To integrate the local Postman MCP server with Claude, check the latest Postman MCP server release and get the .mcpb file:

• Minimal — postman-api-mcp-minimal.mcpb
• Code — postman-mcp-server-code.mcpb
• Full — postman-api-mcp-full.mcpb

For more information, see the Claude Desktop Extensions documentation.

Codex

To install the local server, use the API key installation method. Set the POSTMAN_API_KEY environment variable and invoke the MCP server using npx.

Minimal

$
codex mcp add postman --env POSTMAN_API_KEY=<POSTMAN_API_KEY> -- npx @postman/postman-mcp-server --minimal

Code

$
codex mcp add postman --env POSTMAN_API_KEY=<POSTMAN_API_KEY> -- npx @postman/postman-mcp-server --code

Full

$
codex mcp add postman --env POSTMAN_API_KEY=<POSTMAN_API_KEY> -- npx @postman/postman-mcp-server --full

Windsurf

To install the MCP server in Windsurf, do the following:

1. Click Open MCP Marketplace in Windsurf.
2. Enter “Postman” in the search text box to filter the marketplace results.
3. Click Install.
4. When prompted, enter a valid Postman API key.
5. Select the tools that you want to enable, or click All Tools to select all available tools.
6. Turn on Enabled to enable the Postman MCP server.

Manual installation

Copy the following JSON config into the .codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json file:

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{
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    "mcpServers": {
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        "postman": {
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            "args": [
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                "@postman/postman-mcp-server",
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                "minimal" // (Default) Use this flag to enable minimal mode.
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                // "--full" — Use this flag to enable full mode.
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                // "--code" — Use this flag to enable code mode.
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                // "--quiet" — Use this flag to enable quiet mode alongside your mode of choice.
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            ],
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            "command": "npx",
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            "disabled": false,
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            "disabledTools": [],
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            "env": {
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                "POSTMAN_API_KEY": "<POSTMAN_API_KEY>"
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            }
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        }
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    }
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}

Antigravity

To install the MCP server in Antigravity, click Manage MCP servers > View raw config. Then, copy the following JSON config into the mcp_config.json file:

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{
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    "mcpServers": {
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        "postman": {
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            "args": [
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                "@postman/postman-mcp-server"
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            ],
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            "command": "npx",
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            "disabled": false,
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            "disabledTools": [],
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            "env": {
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                "POSTMAN_API_KEY": "<POSTMAN_API_KEY>"
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            }
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        }
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    }
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}

GitHub Copilot CLI

Use the Copilot CLI to interactively add the MCP server:

$
/mcp add

Manual installation

Copy the following JSON config into the ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json file:

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{
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    "mcpServers": {
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        "postman": {
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            "command": "npx",
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            "args": [
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                "@postman/postman-mcp-server"
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            ],
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            "env": {
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                "POSTMAN_API_KEY": "<POSTMAN_API_KEY>"
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            }
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        }
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    }
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}

Gemini CLI

To install the MCP server directly in the Gemini CLI, run the following command in your terminal.

$
gemini mcp add postman npx -- -y @postman/postman-mcp-server --env POSTMAN_API_KEY=<YOUR_POSTMAN_API_KEY>

Gemini CLI extension

To install the MCP server as a Gemini CLI extension, run the following command in your terminal:

$
gemini extensions install https://github.com/postmanlabs/postman-mcp-server

Kiro

To install the local Postman MCP Server in Kiro, click the install button for the version that you want to use:

Minimal	Code	Full

To install the Postman MCP server with Kiro powers, go to Kiro Powers and navigate to API Testing with Postman in the Browse powers section. Then, click Add to Kiro.

Manual installation

To install the Postman MCP Server manually, do the following:

1. Launch Kiro and click the Kiro ghost icon in the left sidebar.

2. Add an MCP Server and select either User Config or Workspace Config to install the Postman MCP server.

3. Add the following JSON block to the mcp.json configuration file:

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   {
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       "mcpServers": {
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           "postman": {
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           "command": "npx",
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               "args": [
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                   "@postman/postman-mcp-server"
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               ],
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               "env": {
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                   "POSTMAN_API_KEY": "<POSTMAN_API_KEY>"
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               },
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               "disabled": false,
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               "autoApprove": []
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           }
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       }
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   }

Docker

To install the Postman MCP server in Docker, see the Postman MCP server at Docker MCP Hub. Click + Add to Docker Desktop to automatically install it.

To run the Postman MCP server image in Docker, run the following command in your terminal. Docker automatically discovers, downloads, and runs the Postman MCP server image:

$
docker run -i -e POSTMAN_API_KEY="<POSTMAN_API_KEY>" mcp/postman

Manual installation

To build and run the server in Docker manually, run the docker build -t postman-api-mcp-stdio . command. Then, run one of the following commands:

Minimal

$
docker run -i -e POSTMAN_API_KEY="<POSTMAN_API_KEY>" postman-api-mcp-stdio

Full

$
docker run -i -e POSTMAN_API_KEY="<POSTMAN_API_KEY>" postman-api-mcp-stdio --full